Stranded in West Bay

Map of West Bay, New Providence, Bahamas

We made it to the Bahamas after sailing out of Miami, FL on Friday. It took 29 hours of primarily motor sailing and 7 hours of resting and clearing in at Andros. We dropped the hook in West Bay, New Providence, where we have been stranded since Saturday. On Sunday, Hayden's birthday, we tried to bash into 25+ knots of ENE winds only to go 9 miles out, turn around and surf back at 7.8 knots in building seas! DUH, that was really stupid. We had data from our weather router, Chris Parker, and knew it was going to be ENE or E winds....BUT....we thought we could push into this. NO, not down here, this is bigger water, with bigger seas, and we really do not want to move around in the dark, so we need to reach our destinations in the mid afternoons at best!

Departed Miami, made West Bay, now waiting for better winds.
This is the current plan for our George Town run.

So we are here in West Bay, New Providence, Bahamas, on anchor and safe. These is no reason to try to move on UNTIL the wind is in our favor. This will happen Wednesday when the winds move to SSE. Our next destination is Highborne Cay which is 45 miles on a course of 112 degrees. Our overall goal is to deliver Jeff to George Town by Sat/Sun where he has rented a beach house for the week of Feb 17-24. If the weather holds us up, then there are mailboats and planes to take Jeff to George Town.

Here are some photos of our rough days.....

Sunrise over our bow in West Bay, New Providence Bahamas

My "BEACH BUM" crew, Radeen and Jeff

Clifton Heritage Park, where we can land dinghy and walk the sand or swim

View from the Park of Island Spirit at anchor out in the deep water (10 feet)

Radeen is spoiling us with great dinners. Hayden made bread and Jeff stocked the wine cellar.

Radeen walking the low tide

We have now proven that when our weather router says the winds will be 22 knots, gusting to 28 knots from the east, we should believe him. We set sail out into this forecast to "prove" and to "collect data" as to the accuracy of our weather reports. Guess what we learned? ......YES, Chris Parker was right on! Now we know that :-)

This is the wind for today, dead on the bow, so we will wait until Wed, when it goes more SOUTH
http://passageweather.com/index.htm?http%3A//passageweather.com/maps/florida/mappage.htm

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